Mo’ne Davis created quite a story last summer when she was striking out scores of players during the Little League World Series in Williamsport, sickness PA. The Little League World Series is a longstanding summer tradition. Since its beginning in 1947, viagra dosage only seventeen girls have taken to the playing field to play alongside the boys as their teammates, vcialis 40mg but none of them have dominated their male counterparts to the extent that Mo’ne Davis did when she pitched the first ever shutout by a girl in series history. Mo’ne Davis was the 1^st girl to record a win as a pitcher and to pitch a shutout (she was just one hit shy of an absolute no-hitter), and she was the 1^stlittle league player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated at the time of tournament play.We were all riveted by her play for sure, but the amazing poise and maturity with which Mo’ne Davis handled her notoriety and instant star status was certainly a part of the spectacle too. It was a stark contrast to other headlines of the summer, which focused on the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of rogue police officers. The inability to handle the white-hot light of media scrutiny with any type of adeptness or aptitude plagued the Ferguson, MO and Staten Island police departments during the summer of 2014. Mo’ne Davis handled the media like a pro and came out as a superstar.Baseball is a skills sport and, unlike football or even soccer, there is very little physical contact required to play the game. It takes years on average to make it to the major leagues and baseball has in place an extensive system from low A, to high A, to Double A, to triple A before a player enters the playing field as a major leaguer. What is it that is stopping female athletes from competing for a roster spot? When will a woman break the decades-old gender barrier to play affiliated minor league baseball? Could it have something to do with the money?When Venus and Serena Williams entered the sacred bastion of the white elites and played their own brand of tennis, the media scrutiny they faced was relentless. They were talked about and the choices made for them by their father, and the sports media and so-called experts maligned coach Richard Williams. They dismissed him out of hand and predicted absolute failure. They were completely off the mark! The Williams sisters have dominated women’s tennis for going on two decades now. These two sisters from Compton, California took hold of those barriers and busted right through them following in the footsteps of Arthur Ashe, the first Black person to win a majors tournament and Althea Gibson who was the first Black person to win Wimbledon in 1947. Venus and Serena Williams have both been ranked number one in the world for multiple years; they have won Olympic Gold and Grand Slam Tournaments worldwide. Currently, Serena Williams is number one in the world and the largest money-winner in women’s tennis. And women still earn less than men in the world of professional tennis. Why?

Soon, the talk is going to be about the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. That edition is BIG for whoever graces its cover, and the cover makes big money for the signature magazine. How about putting a man on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a swimsuit and giving women equal pay for equal work on the tennis court and a shot at the money made in major league baseball?

Up Next Week: Outrage and outright denial….”pockets of racism?”